From Telco companies, banks, to civil service, Malaysian customer service is tremendously poor and poorly trained. Typical replies are like "boss ambil cuti", "person in charge not in", "will call you back", "hang on i will get you to the right department... than next dept. and so on...", or hangs up on you. Only through threats will people actually do something, this is not the way customers should be treated. I am seriously tired, agitated, and as a consumer instead of being treated as "King"(Economist Theory where by Consumer is King and knows everything), i feel like thrash.

If you would like to skip the story/rants (real), don;t read the fonts that are coloured in RED.

The complicated story begins ....

A typical telephone conversation with X company:
Customer Y: Helo is this X company?
Customer Service of X compnay: Yes this is, how can i help you?
Y: I have a problem with my internet connection, keeps on disconnecting can't figure out the problem ... bla bla bla ...
X: Ok, I will arrange a "standby" technician. Can you provide me with your contact number, so the technician can follow up on this matter?
Y: Sure no problem.
7 days later Y was left with no calls, no technician, and internet was still not working.

This conversation although may vary somewhat from what i had with a telco company customer service, is in fact a real life company. My bill strenched 20 pages hundreds of calls (to some other people) in a single month, and an average of 20 calls were made to the customer service call center "Y" because of internet disruptions, connection faults, bla bla... anything that deals with your internet can;t get online. I had to continue this exercise for 2 and a half months, before they managed to sort things out. Again i had to resort to threats of pulling out from my contract which states that i must stay with the telco company Y for 1 year, and also bring them to the Consumer Tribunal. Tired and very fustrated.

Another Telco company Z, recently advertised (as heard on radio) how convenient, good, helpful, how much they've changed etc... Some really big customer service publicity. Lets me take you back to 2005 the story begins again...

After applying for a telephone line from Z company, installation only took place 2 months later. Does it really take that long, eventually i told them to take a hike, i would rather be without a fix line. (Puchong Inccident)

Now for the Banking sector "standard chartered bank (hereinafter known as SCB)"
Credit card enquiry, my dad has been with SCB for 13 years. For reason unknown he refuse to change to other credit card companies which offered better and more competitive rates and conditions. For the past 13 years he had not received a single gift, although he paid his dues on time (each and every time.). Thats besides the point anyway, the most curious part was why is he still paying ANNUAL FEE for the PAST 13 YEARS! I made an enquiry on behalf of my dad, like usual i get bumped around, some refused to answer my question stating "confidential information", some hang up, and finally jack pot. I threaten to cancel my dad's credit card, immediate waiver for 2 years up to 2007. My dad will have to write to SCB every 2 years to renew the waiver. WTF!!! :eek:

Teeque

10-01-2006, 03:50 AM

What else is new here? The poor service culture in this country has been ard for years. Why nothing been done, you're crying out? Partly due to the lackadaisical attitude on both the part of the authorities and consumers. The Malaysia Boleh attitude, in fact.

Why arent consumers not treated like a 'King', you asked? Why not? In almost every consumer-centric industries, there will almost always be one player who is a 'King' in their industry. Browse thru this forum and you can find at least 2 threads abt the 'King-ly' attitude of these companies. TM, TNB, PUAS, Toyota, Astro, Maxis, Proton, MAS and the list goes on. Look at them, you can see that they are the Kings in their industries or in the cases of the utility companies, they are the only ones we hv. The 2 carmakers are the bestsellers in their category - foreign and local make. SCB you mentioned - probably because they are a foreign bank so they get big-headed?

But if their service(s) are so bad, how come they can remain in their royal thrones and for so long? That, is due to us - the consumers. We put them there and let them 'lord' over us. Because, its like, we cant live without them. Or in some cases, we hv no choice. They are monopolies, such as the 3 national utility companies. TM is still the King in fixed lines although losing some percentage to celcos. Despite new players, Astro is still the King because of their monopoly in broadcasting content. Toyota - cheapest Japanese make in almost every category such as small, medium, large family sedans, MPV, SUV, 4WD. Proton, needless to say lah.
But consumers like us still gave them patronage, in hordes mind you. For them, what is there to worry? They hv held us by our throats, squeezed our hard earned wages into their huge bottomlines, and the best thing is, the consumers still goes back to them for more! What is there to stop them frm 'lording' over us?

Bottomline is, we, the consumers, hv to hit their bottomlines. Hard. That is the only way. The question is, are we, hungry consumers of this generation, willing to sacrifice our comfortable existence and creature comforts, and really make a change in our lives? Ask yourselves.